Hocket

A Medieval practice of composition in which two voices would move in such a manner that one would be still while the other moved and vice-versa. Sometimes this was achieved by taking a single melody and breaking it into short, one or two note phrases, and dividing the phrases between the two voices so that a quick back-and-forth movement of the melody would be heard. ("hiccup") a late-thirteenth- and fourteenth-century technique in which two or more voices fill in one another's silences to make a composite melody. The term may also be applied to a musical work which relies extensively on the technique, such as Machaut's Hoquetus David. a device consisting of rapid alternation of two voices with single notes or groups, and rests